Post-Match Thread and Ratings Southend United 0-2 Maidenhead United

[TJC]

Venting frustration on fans forums is more than warranted, but RH should be a fortress and getting on Kev and the players backs isn't going to help confidence, which currently, we are lacking. For sure it's hard when emotions are high, because it's fair to say at the moment we are dog ****e and these losses are painful to watch and accept.

The criticism I do have with Kev, is set pieces. Again, I couldn't understand why we have 11 back and said the same last week. We cannot defend set pieces which has shown again and again with the goals we're letting in. KAF marking a tall player in the box .... pointless. Better off up pitch keeping a couple of defenders out the way. The other issue I have is delaying substitutions. Game was crying out to take off Bonne for Pepple and waiting again till we go 2-0 down, it's all too late. That said, aside Pepple, I don't think Kev has faith or enough quality on the bench to change things, and that criticism has to go to John Still. He's done OK with some signings, but certainly this season it hasn't been good enough. When we lost Cards and Kens, (which could happen anytime with a long term injury) why didn't we have 2-3 players to target as replacement. This was Stan's model and we haven't followed it. Still IMO, has dropped the ball.

Bonne was clearly a gamble, which hasn't paid off, and he's a big problem right now. Moncur too was another we pinned our hopes on and early signs looked good. But another who isn't in my view, doing enough for the team. Then there are other lacking confidence, like Crowther, Collin, Bridgey, who need support and fans not turning on them. Kev has some serious sorting out to do for sure and fast.

Agree with this although I do think moncur is being judged at little harshly. He has quality but being affected by the poor team performance

 

[GBJ]

Really? Worse than Crazy Mel Capleton and Carl Cumbersome Emberson?

By a country ducking mile

 

[overseas shrimper]

I'm what some might call a 'Kev lover'. I recognise the issues that have impacted our season. I expected a mid-table finish.

However, the manner of our performances this season, apart from a couple of bright moments, have been increasingly alarming. It feels like Sir Chris Powell's final days, with a downward spiral that seems to be heading to an inevitable, sad conclusion.

I really want Kev & co. to turn things around, but it needs to happen soon. Otherwise, it pains me to say it, but change will be needed. His selections and/or substitutions aren't helping him.

 

[Target man]

Agree with this although I do think moncur is being judged at little harshly. He has quality but being affected by the poor team performance

Moncur has quality but isn't doing enough. Isn't letting the ball go early enough. One example was a great run which if he released the ball set Walker through who made a great run. But he wanted to keep the ball and lost it. I think with his quality, he can do better. But, he isn't the worst problem, which IMO, is Bonne. Both are a loan and a short term deal, who both know will be gone end if the season, and clearly don't care for the shirt like others do.

 

[Shrimp and two veg]

Missing Cav Miley big time. A consistant performer that takes the heat off the defence. A 7 out of 10 minimum player, what a big miss.
Noor needs benching. A big strong defender who wins aerial stuff badly needed. And Bonne isnt the fit for us. We had chances today and didnt take them, then forgot to do the basics like pick up at the far post.
Still not got that player that bursts through from central midfield and shoots on the edge of the box.

Its become a bit of a mess. Heads are going down and no less in the stands. Their left back had a great game today. And those two back post goals were peaches. I'm gutted really am.

 

[SuperRonnieP]

Don't disagree with your logic but who? Perhaps a young ambitious Manager at Weymouth.....remember Mark Moseley?
Watching the Post-Match interview with Kev you could see the anger, commitment and having the club at heart but heh lets ship him out and get Brown back again!
78 days now into to new take over period. Lets get the club on a sound Financial footing, give Kev the resources he needs during a transfer window when we compete on a even footing and if in a years time we are still playing **** then I agree time for him to go. Getting rid of now in my opinion (which you obviously disagree with) is we need to let this whole thing settle down.

I certainly don't want Kev to go, but at the moment we seem to be trying to play a set up and style that some of the players currently available don't seem to be suited to. The ones that are suited to it remain woefully short of confidence.

 

[leeblue]

Defending an issue now.
Shake-up needed
Crowther Gubbins ralph
Get Taylor in DM role we may stop teams strolling through the midfield at will. Crowther looked good last year on the right of a three.

 

[johnlattimerssponge]

Truly awful performance all round and our defending at set pieces in the last two home games has been shocking with three goals conceded to free headers despite us playing three centre backs.

How we miss Harry in that respect as well.

 

[RHB]

It certainly looks like the fighting spirit of the past few seasons has quietly moved on, but hardly surprising when the core of that team is no longer out there.. Today I witnessed my team totally lacking in confidence, totally afraid to move and pass at speed without thinking too hard, and genuinely afraid of making mistakes (which they duly did). That, as we all know, including Kev and Co, is a recipe for footballing disaster. So how do we pull it all back? Well for a start we need to get Mr Miley fit and back in the team. Ain't nobody as accomplished as he is in patrolling that area in front of the back three. Obviously that alone won't make things right. A lot of our problems are what is going on in the players heads. No amount of tactical discussions on the training ground is going to pay dividends if the players revert to anti mistake, go slow mode. I have absolutely no idea quite how we will come through this bad run, but I'm sure we will (without knowing how). Probably, just scoring some goals will spark the recovery, as confidence is a footballer's main stream drug.

No doubt Kev is going to get/has got a savaging on here (I've read nothing before this). But he is still the man for me to take us forward, and it will be a measure of his ability and mental strength if he cracks it. Let's hope the FA Cup is where it all begins.

 

[MisterStubbs]

Don't disagree with your logic but who? Perhaps a young ambitious Manager at Weymouth.....remember Mark Moseley?
Watching the Post-Match interview with Kev you could see the anger, commitment and having the club at heart but heh lets ship him out and get Brown back again!
78 days now into to new take over period. Lets get the club on a sound Financial footing, give Kev the resources he needs during a transfer window when we compete on a even footing and if in a years time we are still playing **** then I agree time for him to go. Getting rid of now in my opinion (which you obviously disagree with) is not what we should do. We need to let this whole thing settle down after the takeover, Kensdale, Cardwell etc.

I don't know who. Thankfully there will be people employed by the club with better knowledge than me regarding managers up and down the country.

I don't doubt that Kev is hurting as much as we do right now and I don't take any pleasure in saying it's time for a change as I've always been a big fan of his but I do believe now is the right time. We can't keep going in the direction we are currently going, trying to do the same thing week in week out. We are only heading in one direction at the moment and that's down.

 

[ColinMorrisWalksOnWater]

Do you honestly think a manager change will change anything ?
You may get the new manager bounce, but then what , change it again .
We have an average set of players some come up a league who need to build confidence, yes I agree that comes from manager/ coaches etc, but we need to stop this we are big club crap. We are now a struggling side , pay your money and show your disappointment but changing the manager will make little difference.
Cannot blame Ron anymore, we need a reality check and first thing we have a club which at one point was never on the cards
Believe in the process with COSU and the staff we have, how many managers need to go before a minority is satisfied

Who mentioned anything about big club?!

At all levels when the manager either loses the players, engenders performances that never look like winning a game, players stop feeding off of themselves and encouraging, or stop playing to the ethos the manager wants to instil, which happened today and has been increasing over the past few performances, as Kev keeps highlighting in post match interviews one way or another and results suffer, as they have, at all levels the managers tenure comes into question, so pardon me if I take that sentence as garbage, when you are quoting me, as didn't mention anything about size of club, it applies to all clubs, size is irrelevant.

I am now in the place where "Hey, the emperor isn't wearing any clothes."

The team is playing garbage, build up is painfully slow, we don't get behind defences and make opponents play facing their own goal at all, and threading through balls to our strikers is a thing of the past and it's all down to tactics, which haven't changed for two seasons approx.

We are repeatedly vulnerable to set pieces which we haven't been in recent seasons. What's changed there? Oh personnel. Are they good enough? Currently no imo.

We have lost players this season and have bought new personnel in, but the "cast in stone" tactics we play clearly don't suit those we have bought in.

You are quite right, the players we have now with maybe one exception are bang average and no better, at least not that they have shown so far. Agreed they do need to build confidence, but playing possession football, about five yards in front of the edge of our box, where any mistake can be costly is not going to build confidence is it? Particularly when they are not good enough to execute it consistently yet.

So yes, I am questioning Kev, sadly so, but football is a result based sport and it is not a game that gives the best results based on sentiment. Sentiment gets you relegated, as it leads to a longer than necessary run of poor results if they are not ended. To end our results we need tactics that suit the players we have bought in. Tippy tappy around the back, on the edge of our box with these players is hurting us game after game. Giving opponents time to reset and making them harder to break down, with a set of tactics that couldn't break down a soaked cardboard box! (unless it had Solihull written on the side)!

As has been said on this thread, we are not Man City, but one thing City and other teams do that play to this system well, is they get up to the half way line then start the possession based play, not on the edge of their own box and just passing back to their 'keeper, which we do endlessly with Collin, putting him under more pressure than necessary, or just taking the easy option to pass the ball back from whence it came and when it's done as much as we do it, that's called bottling and being devoid of vision and responsibility and achieves the square route of F*** all, when applying pressure to an opponent you need to beat.

So change the tactics, play further up the pitch, whatever and if Kev can do that great, but if he can't and performances carry on like they are at the moment his position has to be looked at.

If it is a step up for Darren Currie, or someone from outside then so be it. If it was Currie, he didn't play to these tactics at Barnet when he had his spell in charge. If it's someone from outside, then so be it, but they have to understand the level of football we are currently playing at.

But the time that that decision should be made in draws closer and closer, whilst this abysmal run of performances continues, otherwise we will be in a similar position to Torquay, or at a level where Scunthorpe are currently at and COSUs plans of sustainability becomes much harder, so they can't afford to be sentimental either, as their process will be in tatters!

 

[davewebbsbrain]

Always maintained Kensdale was the best player at the club. Evidence shows that to be true.
Now...he had to go and that's not kevs or Crowthers fault and difficult to replace without smashing some cash.....which isn't going to happen so here we are.

Don't be mentioning Kensdale and cash in the same post

 

[MisterStubbs]

I doubt it has anything to do with a change of tactics. Surely, it means new recruits?

We've been saying for weeks we need new faces, surely Kev hasn't only just realised that?

 

[Thor1]

To my mind the club have 3 options.

1. Do nothing.

2. Change the management team, but is the right person out there and could they get a tune out of this lot.

3. Wait for the January transfer market and bring in 4/5 decent players and ship a few out. Would require significant investment with no absolute guarantee.

1 is not a viable option and flirting with relegation and hoping there a 4 teams worse than us is a bit like playing Russian Roulette.

 

[Wickford Blue]

I don't know who. Thankfully there will be people employed by the club with better knowledge than me regarding managers up and down the country.

I don't doubt that Kev is hurting as much as we do right now and I don't take any pleasure in saying it's time for a change as I've always been a big fan of his but I do believe now is the right time. We can't keep going in the direction we are currently going, trying to do the same thing week in week out. We are only heading in one direction at the moment and that's down.

78 Days!

 

[Chris Powell's mate]

Parental warning for the second week running.

 

[Hampshire Shrimp]

There isn't exactly a huge number of decent Managers out there looking for a job! But there are clubs looking for decent Managers.....you only have to look back a week to see the Gateshead guy being poached by a League Club. Kev has decent league experience and would probably be happy to be a Number 2 somewhere if we drive him out

I`m not sure the Number 1 where ever he may go would be happy though?

 

[pottster]

Taking an attacking player off and replacing with a defender whilst 2 nil down is straight out of the Molesey play book. They must have gone to the same academy

 

[loz]

Ughhh

- players looked nervous today in a way I've not felt before in a Kev side. Looking for the sideways balls because they were afraid of ****ing up and turning down chances to progress forwards into space.

- we badly miss the combined presence of Cards and Ollie at set pieces. I'm wincing whenever we concede a corner.

- we badly miss Ollie organising the defence. I like Crowther but he's struggling in the middle of the three, looked better as a RCB. We don't seem to have any good options for that central spot atm so we either need to bring someone in or abandon the back three.

-worst I've ever seen Noor play, gave the ball away in good areas 5 or 6 times. He and Moncur look knackered and need a spell on the bench.

-Morton seems to get caught in possession in our one half every game, needs to be much more aware.

- I struggle to see Bonne scoring a goal for Southend. Not remotely suited to our system and Pepple offers way more atm.

Thought Ralph being back would help bridge but didn't see the usual overlaps, not sure what is up there.

I like KAF, good player.

To summarise, ughhhh.

 

[rayleigh dan]

Are we allowed to criticise Maher yet…?

I could ditto my match report/ratings from the Gateshead match, but somehow we were even worse.

What the hell has gone wrong? To be outfought and outplayed by a route 1 part time team is embarrassing. We have far too many players well under par, Bridge, Husin and Gus today for a start. Others who have come in aren’t good enough. I’ve had enough of Crowther now, though why Foran, who was just an inept today as against Gateshead, not Gubbins came on to replace him is beyond me.

I gave Bonne a 2 out of 10 last week, others said he played well! If I hear the same today I’m going to question my sanity, half arsed, no movement, not good enough. Pepple and Walker at least ran and gave some energy.

I heard from my mate that Moncur disappeared down the tunnel with the hump straight after being subbed. If this is true then he shouldn’t play for us again, he’s flattered to deceive and makes no effort to track back at all. We appear to fallen down a Phil Brown rabbit hole of signing ‘has beens’ with Moncur & Bonne, something I hoped we’d seen the last of.

Worst of all our team spirit and togetherness seems to have evaporated. Maher’s got a huge job now to turn it around. I wish him well and hope he does so, but he needs to make tough decisions and admit he’s got some decisions wrong recently.